Learning to Fly Like an Eagle

At church on Sunday the theme was based off of Isaiah 40:31;

But those who wait on the LORD
      Shall renew their strength;
      They shall mount up with wings like eagles,
      They shall run and not be weary,
      They shall walk and not faint.

This has always been one of my favorite verses in the Bible, just because the visual of flying like an eagle was always appealing to me. The bald eagle is and always has been my favorite animal. It is majestic, strong, beautiful, and most of all, it soars above everything. I always thought it would be great to be able to soar like an eagle!

When I think of soaring, I think of peace, speed, and even the avoidance of problems, but Pastor handed out a story that made me think of a different aspect of soaring. The story follows the training of an eagle teaching a young one to fly. First the mother eagle pushes the little one out of the nest and removes the soft moss in the nest to bare thorns so that when the young one jumps back in the thorns poke it and it jumps back out. Then as it is falling, the father eagle swoops down and catches it on his back. This process repeats itself until the young eagle learns to spread it's wings and fly.

This story made me think, maybe flying like an eagle, at the beginning, isn't so peaceful. Sometimes we have to deal with thorns, and falling, until we learn to spread our wings and fly.

God: Our Last Resort?

"The wretched and miserable should turn to their Saviour first, yet they do not hope in Him until all other hope is exhausted." - Alexander Dumas (The Count of Monte Cristo)

I just finished reading the book The Count of Monte Cristo and I recommend it to any readers out there. As always, it has so much more depth to the story than the movie, but this one is even more so than most. There are stories, within the main story, in which almost all characters were taken completely out of the movie. But one of the things I liked most about the book is Dumas' exploration of Edmund Dantes' relationship with God. This relationship is shown to us in such a way that, even though our experiences are dramatically different, we can relate to it in ourselves. The quote above is probably my favorite quote expressing this relationship.

Why is it that we wait until there is no hope, to turn to Christ? There is a saying that there is 'no atheist in a foxhole'. I've never personally been in a foxhole, but I have seen in my life how many people, who reject God when things are going good, cry out to Him when all goes bad. We seem to think that we don't need Him, when we have a good paying job, a happy family, and everyone we know is healthy. 

 Even when we initially lose our job, we search and search on our own. Maybe we go to the unemployment office, ask our friends and family for help, or go anywhere else we can think of for help. When we are sick we go to the doctor, then another doctor, then a specialist, etc. When we fight with our spouse, or our kids are rebellious, we find a book about it to read, go to a family counsellor, etc. Then finally, when none of that works, we turn to God. God is our last resort. Why is He not our first?

I do not have a problem with utilizing all of these resources. I think God has put doctors, and counselors, and the unemployment office, in place in order to help us. But we should be consulting God first. We should be asking Him for His plan. What job does He want you to have? How does He want to heal you? What steps does He want you to take to fix your family relationships?

Sometimes I wonder if God doesn't occasionally step back just so we can realize how much we need Him. We get to a point where our lives are going so well and we think it is our own doing. We think that we brought success to our lives, and we stop seeking God. All of a sudden our life falls apart and we blame God. Why did you allow this to happen to my hard fought success? Maybe God is just trying to remind us that none of it is ours. He's waiting for us to seek Him again. 

God is always merciful. He always gives another chance. But if you stop seeking Him, watch out, because you just took yourself out of His plan! Don't wait until your last resort. Seek Him now! Before you are wretched and miserable!

True Love - A Reminder for Valentine's Day.

Today is Valentine's Day. Many people think of it as a day only for couples, but I think it is better as a day to celebrate and remember love. This can take form in celebrating your love for your spouse or significant other, but it doesn't have to. Why not make this valentine's Day a day in which you celebrate the very personification of love, God. The Bible says 'God is love', therefore without God love would be non-existent. So as we celebrate love on Valentine's day, let's celebrate the reason we have love at all. Let's celebrate true love, not just romanticism. True love is described here in 1 Corinthians 13:

 ¹ Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. ² And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. ³ And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing.
⁴ Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; ⁵ does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; ⁶ does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; ⁷ bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
⁸ Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away. ⁹ For we know in part and we prophesy in part. ¹⁰ But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away.
¹¹ When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things. ¹² For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.
¹³ And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.